Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Question: Miller, and his men meet a guy named Mendelson who has bad hearing because a German grenade went off right by his head. Realistically, wouldn't Mendelson be dead?

Answer: When he says "right by my head," I'm sure he doesn't mean it literally...if it had, of course he'd be dead. There could have been something blocking him from the shrapnel, but the sound wave could still severely damage his hearing.

If he doesn't mean it literally when he said a German grenade went off right by his head, then how do you explain that wound on the side of his head?

Debris?

Ssiscool

Ruptured eardrum.

kayelbe

Answer: He may have put too much into his line. It's possible the shockwave damaged his hearing. If the grenade went off right by him he would have much more severe injuries than loss of hearing. His injury on his face is probably from shrapnel caused by the blast.

Tony

Bloody Harlan - S2-E13

Question: Mags poisons herself with the same "it was in the glass, not the jar" approach she took with Loretta's father. But we see her grab two glasses - one from the cupboard and one off a shelf. Does she slip poison in while off camera, or is it just that the cupboard/shelf glasses are always poisoned, trusting that everyone knows not to use them? Seems like a crazy risk to take.

Jon Sandys

Question: How did Mar-vell get the tesseract?

Answer: Howard Stark relinquished custody of it to her. For a full history of the Tesseract see here: https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Tesseract.

ctown28

Answer: She went to her mother's for at least the weekend, possibly for the entire time their children were at camp.

Question: Would Cadets Woliger and Fox have actually been able to attend a military academy, considering that Woliger has heart problems and Fox is deaf?

Answer: Madison is not a military academy. It is a boarding school and Major Payne has been put in charge of their JROTC program. It is, however unlikely that those cadets, or the blind cadet at the end of the film, would be admitted into a JROTC program. The Code of Federal Regulations states that the JROTC program is designed for "physically fit" students. Tiger is also much too young to be allowed to participate, you must be in at least the 7th grade to participate. Madison is apparently making exceptions to allow basically anyone that wants to participate and that would not be allowed in real life.

BaconIsMyBFF

Show generally

Question: In all the Highlander movies and in this show, was there any reason given why immortals can't fight each other on holy ground?

Answer: In the episode "Little Tin God," Joe Dawson mentions a duel between immortals on a temple in Pompeii—just before Vesuvius erupted. Whether the two are supposed To Be connected is up for debate, but still.

Answer: Not directly. But there is a penalty involved. In Highlander 3 the fighting on holy ground resulted in the destruction of one of the weapons. In End Game several immortals are murdered whilst on holy ground but no repercussions were ever revealed, so it's possible it is specifically about the fighting. Nobody knows what happens when an immortal is killed in a duel on holy ground but it's safe to assume the penalty will be severe because all immortals respect this rule, even the most evil ones (except that one moment in Highlander 3).

lionhead

Question: How could Daniel become skilled enough to beat black belts in a karate tournament after just two months of training?

Answer: The Karate Kid series as a whole, which includes the TV show Cobra Kai, implies that Miyagi's teachings are highly effective. Miyagi's unorthodox teaching methods can get a novice up to a high level in a short period of time.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: His opponents in the Valley tournament are not all black belts either. Johnny for example is not a black belt.

Question: Does Master Li's actor, Yu Rongguang, know English? I noticed that Master Li never speaks English during this movie.

Answer: I'm pretty sure he can understand some basic English, even though he prefers not to speak it.

Answer: Yes.

Answer: Because there was nothing suspicious about it. These things just happen and Monk is smart enough to know it was just one of those things.

Brian Katcher

Answer: In addition to the in-universe answer, an out-of universe answer (i.e. real life), since Stanley Kamel died in real life, it wouldn't be possible to film him in flashback scenes, like Monk's "here's what happened" summation. So setting an episode around solving his death, would be somewhat limited or require a stand-in.

Bishop73

Question: When the shark attacks the helicopter why isn't the shark sliced in half when the rotor blades hit the water?

Answer: The rotors break as soon as they hit the water.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Was there any reason why the subway ghost was angry at Sam for being in the same train with him?

Answer: For one, he was mostly insane, with periodic lucid periods. He saw the subway area as his personal property and did not want another ghost moving into and challenging his established territory.

raywest

Answer: Back in the 50's and early 60's it was a law that you had to get into and out of your car from the sidewalk side, so I assume they were following that procedure.

Answer: I found this online, as apparently others wondered the same thing. It is only one explanation but it seems plausible: (paraphrased) It could be equipment-related. Getting in on the passenger side can be shot as a locked-down tripod shot. Getting in on the driver side means the guy has to walk around the car, requiring at minimum a pan/tilt/zoom and probably a dolly shot to make it look good (they didn't have Steadicams back then, so any time the camera had to move, a dolly track had to built for it to roll on). That would add expense and time to what was really just an establishing shot. This was a low-budget TV show, and it was cheaper to shoot it that way.

raywest

Question: How was Jason able to find out where Alice Hardy (the girl who killed his mother) lives?

Answer: It's possible that there was a media blitz of her being the sole survivor of the massacre, including where she was residing. Jason may have been a psycho, but he might have enough intelligence to figure it out.

Question: Since Harry's Boggart was a Dementor, would it have the same abilities as an actual one?

Answer: Lupin addresses this by saying (and I'm paraphrasing a bit here) Boggarts sometimes do not have the same strength or magic as what they imitate, for example, a Boggart transformed into a Dementor has weaker magic than a real Dementor or a deadly scream as a true Banshee.

Ssiscool

Question: Why would Nino come to visit her every day when she knows she is being watched?

Question: Is Chop Top the same character as the deranged hitchhiker from the first film?

Answer: No, the hitchhiker was killed in the first movie when he's hit by a truck. His corpse is the body that Leatherface uses as a puppet during the opening scene. (He's nicknamed "Nubbins.") Chop-Top is supposed to be one of Leatherface's other brothers. According to director Tobe Hooper, Chop-Top was away in Vietnam during the events of the first movie.

TedStixon

Question: How were the visual effects for the scary images in the tunnel accomplished?

Answer: Simple, movie projectors screened on the walls, all around them like a kaleidoscope.

Answer: The storyline was that Jessica was teaching classes in New York. However, after so many seasons and as ratings declined, it was probably to freshen up the series with a different locale, introduce new characters, and have a greater variety of situations in which Jessica could solve murders. It was already unbelievable that so many people could be murdered in the small town of Cabot Cove. Being in a large city like New York makes it a tiny bit more plausible.

raywest

Question: What was Lindsey referring to when she called Coffey "Roger Ramjet"?

Answer: Roger Ramjet was a 1960's American cartoon character who was extremely patriotic, but dimwitted.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: She's comparing the overzealous, gung-ho Coffey to the 1960s cartoon character, Roger Ramjet, a frenetic, extremely patriotic, though not particularly bright American-hero guy. He worked for the U.S. government and routinely saved the world, using energy pills that gave him brief increased strength.

raywest

Answer: Dudley Do-right, Inspector Clouseau or Maxwell Smart, only in a '50's space cartoon, that's Roger Ramjet (I imagine Buzz Lightyear is the nearest pop cultural successor).

dizzyd

Answer: It isn't said specifically, but Tommy does mention that "it's in here now" while pointing to his head. This suggests some sort of cancer has spread to his brain.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: It's implied to be a combination of brain damage (Johnny suggests this to Miguel earlier) and cancer that spread to the brain. In real life the actor suffered kidney and liver failure and died not long after.

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